mcafiero

Should I even bother with a "my first crit" race report or am I going to have to deal with elitist forum belittling?

gsteinb

Apparently there was a really bad crash in the 3/4 race that canceled the race. Hope everyone is ok.

caloso

I won't speak for anyone else but I, for one, enjoy reading first race reports.

learnmedia

My first race report here was met only with encouragement and great advice. Let's hear it.

BrainInAJar

Local RR. It was really cold and rainy so I didn't do any warmup, figuring that being wet was worse than not warming up, and I'd have the first lap to warm my legs up.

Right out of the gate, guy who's a really good time trialist jumps off the front. He gets a decent gap on the group & growing. Everyone's sitting around letting him go because they're lazy so I take it on myself to bridge up to him ( with cold legs. ) HR is pegged to the max & I'm not putting out that many watts but I get up to him anyways, he drags me around for a half lap, but while I'm still recovering he jumps off the front of me. I keep going around & we get to the hill where I'm eaten up by the pack, and the next hill were I'm thrown out the back of the pack ( having just killed myself to catch up with the aforementioned TT guy )

I roll around for another couple laps, and I see the TT guy hanging out at the side of the road texting & chatting up the road marshalls. He had been dropped too. That f**er. Then I got cold and gave up.

valygrl

Carnage out there, sorry to hear it. Someone keep the updates on u.m.d. coming, please?

Race #2 yesterday - Mines-Oredigger Time Trial - up Lookout Mountain in Golden CO, 4 miles 1200 feet of climbing.

Mentally it was much easier than the last one, as the weather was perfect, no wind (thank god) and climbing is something I really love to do.

I had a different power strategy this time since last time the plan I used basically set me up to not work hard enough. This time I used my power at LT as a lower limiter on effort, instead of targeting 95% of LT for the first half. Since this course was 100% up hill (grades mostly around 5-6% but varying a little) and wind was not a factor, that made pacing a lot easier to deal with. I did go out a little too hard in the first 10 minutes, then wasn't able to hold that wattage for the rest. I had kind of a wattage dip in the middle 10 minutes, but managed to pick up the pace a little in the last 10 minutes, and felt like I was about to barf at the end. If anyone has any TT wisdom to impart, I'm all ears.

The result was 17th out of 29, which was honestly a little disappointing, I was hoping for a better place, since I like to think I'm an OK climber. But realistically, while climbing is one of my strengths relative to other types of riding, I'm really not fast, and this just proved that empirically. Guess it's time to work harder in training and work on the weight too.

Anyway, it was a great experience, I totally loved it, and I can't wait for the next one!

mcafiero

OK, then this report is for Caloso. First crit.

I was doing great from the start. Clipped right in and stayed within the top 5-10 for the first 5 or so laps in this 45 minute race with a maxed out field of 75 riders.

Was uncomfortable despite all the studying and practicing I have done in the turns. It seemed I wanted to zig when everyone else wanted to zag. I race on the track only until today, so I am only used to going in circles.

In one of the turns a feller to the left of me went out of control, swirving right into me, sending me out to the right in the middle of a roundabout. I shot backwards and just like that, I was in the back of the pack.

5 laps later, I managed to work my way to the top 10 area again and feeling good. Then again at the same roundabout, another guy actually brushes into the curb. In what seemed to be slow motion, his entire bike goes airborne about 8 inches. At the moment he lands, he swirves right. Just like the last time, and again, even worse than before, I swirved right and shot back even further.

The rest of the race it was me and some other stragglers. Never caught up. Not even close. It was a major bummer. I had been banking on using my sprint training to get a good sprint. Not my day.

It was incredibly windy and my 200lb frame felt like a sail while all these other aerodynamic cyclists seemed to cut through the wind with no problem.

So it was a very humbling experience. I need to work on strategy a lot more. I feel confident that I have the fitness to hang and the legs to win a sprint. But as far as technique goes, I need to really work on positioning.

On paper, my power profile tells me I could hang with cat 3. So yes, just like you all have said, power is just one teeny, tiny factor. I definitely resemble that remark.

I'm glad I did it and can't wait for another shot.

chado445510

Good race! Sometimes that happens, just wait for the next one. It'll be better.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that if you're hurting, everyone else is too. One big thing about racing is making it look like you're not hurting. This plays tricks with the minds of your competitors and can be way more useful at times than riding hard. Just something to think about when you're riding in to the wind!

mcafiero

Good call, thanks. I probably did a terrible job of hiding the hurt!

AzTallRider

I have a teammate (season points leader) who is really good at not only making it look like he isn't hurting, it looks like he isn't even working at it. He'll be up on the hoods, relaxed and cool, while everyone else is frantic. Pretty deflating to the competition.

caloso

Anytime you finish a race upright, that's good. Some of the big things about learning to race crits, as you're discovering, is learning how to corner in a group, recognize trouble spots, and recognize squirrelly riders. Best bet is to do everything you can to get the hell in front of those guys. But I bet your track experience helped keep you upright. So you've got that going for you, which is nice.

echappist

bingo.

Also, he-whom-shoUld-not-be-naMeD also suffered some horrendous injuries at the San Dima race. Staying upright is not overrated when you have two experienced cyclists go down in bad crashes in one weekend.

ruskko

thats was goal 1 of 2 today...stay upright and finsh,i did both.

keepamonte

Hell's Kitchen Masters Road Race. My 4th masters race as I am a cat 4 from last season. Nice field two groups got a jump from the neutral roll out and were never seen again. Held my own each of the 3 times we had to make the climb as the finish was on the hill this year. Last climb I pulled ahead and came in 12, all 11 were in breakaways I'm told. Tough wind today, averaged 15-25mph steady.

DocM

It was a pretty scary crash. You rode well today, though, in one heck of a fast race. That last lap was one of the fastest I've done there.

climber7

second half of the weekend's report: philly phlyer crit, collegiate men's B. warmed up, then had to sit around at the start for a while, so got kind of cold. first few laps were pretty tough; people were still getting used to the course, so the riding wasn't very smooth. lots of sprinting out of corners and accordion effect. eventually i worked my way toward the front as my legs were finally warming up. sat in for a while and tried not to do much. at some point, an RIT rider attacked, and a brown rider and i tried to bridge. i honestly don't remember how that happened. anyway, just as we were catching up, RIT hit the deck going around a corner (he took his free lap and kept racing). we got swallowed up by the field shortly after that. then a penn state rider kind of rolled off the front...it was weird. he never really attacked, but he ended up soloing for the win. i attacked on the last prime lap with 3 laps to go. got a little gap and stayed out until the second to last lap. back in the pack, sat in, got destroyed in the sprint. oh well. had a great 99% of the race...it's just that last little 1% that gets me. haha.

i really felt strong in the middle of the race as people were getting tired - was closing gaps and moving up really easily - so i thought i might be able to make something stick this time, but i'm still not quite there. definitely closer, though. maybe next time i'll just force myself to sit in and see what actually happens if i try to sprint.


congrats on racing and finishing. great that you're looking forward to doing it again. those other guys are getting pushed around plenty by the wind, but they're probably just better at finding wheels and hiding from it. or maybe they're just stronger and can push through it more easily. i seem to recall a pretty big guy named fabian something or other who does pretty well on the aerodynamic front in time trials, so it's definitely possible...or you could just learn to put out a zillion watts like he does

kindablue

You chose a hell of a technical course for your first crit. Not much of a pack sprinter's course either, unless you are a sprinter who likes to spend some time in the wind. Its fun though, the same course will be relived later this year in the City Park Crit (they may add in an even nastier turn on the SW side of the course too).

And you weren't alone, I lost a few good positions defending my wheel that race. I'm surprised (but happy) that nobody went down.

DU Crit, SM 4/5
Place 5/83

Got to the line 10 minutes early and everyone was already lined up, yay. Had some clip in issues and I really started OTB.

Two laps later we restarted because the corner officials were not in place...

The course is a crazy one, with 2 round abouts and 2 other minor turns. There was a notable headwind on the finishing stretch and a cross wind on the back stretch.

Took me about 15 minutes to find my place, but 1/2 back in the pack actually felt pretty comfortable. There was a yo yo effect out of round about #1, but if I took the outside line I could hide in the wind on the back stretch. Of course I had to spend some energy to pass tired riders, but pretty much sat steady for the whole race.

I ended up sitting mid pack until about 4 to go, when I moved up. The back stretch was actually a good place to make moves if you had the fitness, luckily I did.

Found myself top 10 with 1 to go, then two people made a move OTF. A local who I've ridden with jumped after them, and I latched onto his wheel (the guy is crazy strong). He pulled through roundabout #1, and started to slow on the backstretch. I figured the field wasn't too far behind, so I jumped and yelled for him to get on my wheel. I was 3rd pulling through roundabout #2 (last turn) and pushed to the line. Two jumped past me, which left me with 5th place.

Best result yet! This base thing really pays off...

RedLeg

Two races this weekend...both undone by flat tires.

gsteinb

We gotta race 'em one day at a time. I'm just happy to be here and hope I can help the team. I just want to give it my best shot and, Good Lord willing, things'll work out.

DocM

After that performance I would suggest we start calling you Crash Davis if that weren't such a terrible nickname for a cyclist.

GizMoRdr

Sorry to hear about all of that Racer Ex. Sounds frustrating to say the least. I hope you recover well

shovelhd

Maybe I'll do my race report tomorrow. Right now I'm thinking of Aki. He puts on one hell of a race series and he just went through a nightmare. Keep that 3/4 racer in your prayers.

Congrats gsteinb.

jwible

Union City Mayor's Cup cat IV.

The course was technically a circuit with no pit and no free lap. The course has a slight rise to turn 1, then a 50m section to a downhill T2, followed by another 50m downhill to T3. From 3-4 is a flat wide straight. T4 is a wide (3 lanes) flat to uphill turn. Everyone drilled it on this section. I hit between 7-800 watts here every lap. 75m to uphill t5 which bottle necked to 1 lane, 30m to t6 to flat 3 lane 350m finish straight.

I think we started with around 60 and finished with about 45. I had a decent front road start and settled in around 10th wheel for the first lap. Very sketchy first couple of laps. People really leaning on the brakes for turns I wouldn't bother breaking in. Lots of burning brake pad smells wafting in the air especially in turns 3 and 4. 3 was tight and 4, although wide, would jam up the field.

Pretty typical for a race with turns in quick succession. String out from 1-3 surge back together and avalanche all over the riders in the front (riders in the back accelerating to get back to the leaders and overshooting them.) Then string out for 4-6 and bunch again on the front straight.

About mid race I put in a burst on the back straight to get in better position. I ended up with enough momentum to coast to the front. So I took 4-6 in the lead and enjoyed staying off the brakes for a bit. Officially led two laps I think. I've got some points for the 'chase' now haha.

Prime with 5 to got got the pack moving and increased the suffer level in the 4-6 section and kept it up until T1. I moved back up to around P5 on the back stretch anticipating an increased pace for the final 3 laps and was sitting pretty. Until the two to go sign was up. the pack surged, I stayed around 10-15 wheels back, went through that lap OK. Made it through 1-3 fine and then the avalanche took over on the back straight. I didn't have much of a response on the T4 hill and had no zip at all coming out of 6. Pushed hard for the finish, but mainly to maintain position. Finished 26th with the pack.

Skipped the RR today. Was up well past midnight last week a few days working. Last night I just felt dead and figured a restful day would do me better than a road race.

Team Highlight. The son of one of our guys raced with his dad in the 5s. We got 1,2, 5, 6 in that race. The son (14) drilled it on the back stretch on the last lap and strung it out. His dad started cheering for him from behind. The son held the lead until about 200 yards. They finished 5 and 6 with our other two guys in 1,2.

Here's the pair on the back straight as seen from the front straight.

Homebrew01

+2
I hope the guy recovers. Sounds like a bad one.

echappist

oh s***, you don't meant to say he also crashed?